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<\/p>\nNew South Wales Premier Chris Minns says the Newcastle Writers Festival is “crazy” to invite Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah to speak, after she was removed from a similar event in Adelaide.<\/p>\n
Dr Abdel-Fattah was uninvited from Adelaide Writers’ Week, part of the Adelaide Festival, last month after pressure from the South Australian government.<\/p>\n
That decision set off a chain of events resulting in the resignation of the Adelaide Festival’s entire board, and the writing event being cancelled.<\/p>\n
Mr Minns said on Friday he did not agree with the Newcastle Writers Festival’s decision to book the author, but he would not intervene.<\/p>\n
“I don’t know why these organisations do it,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I think they are crazy to invite that author when you think about how divisive it is, and how difficult it would be for the organisation as a result of the notoriety.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chris Minns says he will not intervene in the Newcastle festival’s decision. (ABC News: Ethan Rix)<\/p>\n
South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas had written to the Adelaide Writers’ Week\u00a0board strongly urging against the inclusion of Dr Abdel-Fattah on the program, saying it was “not in the public interest”.<\/p>\n
The board issued a statement saying it would not be “culturally sensitive” to include the Palestinian-Australian author so soon after the Bondi Beach terrorist attack on a Jewish celebration in December, which left 15 people dead.<\/p>\n
That decision triggered a boycott by the majority of the Adelaide Festival’s speakers, and the resignation of its board and director, before the writing event was cancelled altogether.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The board later apologised to Dr Abdel-Fattah and invited her to attend next year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr Minns said Dr Abdel-Fattah’s inclusion “probably” had come up in discussions between the government and the Newcastle event board, but he would not personally intervene.<\/p>\n
“I don’t want to get into endless debate about cancellations,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We’re not going to shut down Newcastle.<\/p>\n
“My understanding is the organisers will not withdraw the invitation.”<\/p>\n
Dr Abdel-Fattah has declined to comment, but shared the program in a post on social media and thanked the festival’s founding director Rosemarie Milsom, adding: “This is leadership and collective care.”<\/p>\n
She also posted quotes from the premier questioning her calibre as a writer,\u00a0alongside a list of her literary achievements.<\/p>\n
The Newcastle Writers Festival, of which the ABC is a long-standing media partner, will be held from March 27 to 29.<\/p>\n
No government pressure, festival director says<\/p>\n
Ms Milsom told the ABC Dr Abdel-Fattah was invited in August last year.<\/p>\n
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Rosemarie Milsom says the Newcastle Writers Festival has a commitment to freedom of expression. (Supplied: Max Mason-Hubers)<\/p>\n
She denied the state government had pressured her to remove the writer.<\/p>\n
“They’re always in communication in that they are [a] major supporter of the festival, but there’s been no intervention,” Ms Milsom told ABC Radio Newcastle.<\/a><\/p>\n The Adelaide Festival moved to uninvite Dr Abdel-Fattah over previous comments that Zionists “have no claim or right to cultural safety” and a 2024 social media posting, saying: “The goal is decolonisation and the end of this murderous Zionist colony”, claiming in an accompanying video that Israel’s existence depended on violence against Palestinians.<\/p>\n